Dead Scientist of the Week

Sunday, September 14, 2014

William Budd was born on September 14, 1811 in North Tawton, Devonshire. Budd was born into a family of physicians. His father and seven of his ten brothers were medical professionals, Budd was initially apprenticed to his father and then went to Paris, France where he studied for four years. In 1838 he graduated with an MD from Edinburgh University where he shared a gold medal for an essay he wrote on rheumatism. Budd briefly served aboard the hospital ship HMS Dreadnought in Greenwich, where he nearly died from a bout of typhoid fever. Forced to resign due to his illness Budd went home to North Tawton, where he assisted his father in his country practice. There Budd began to study typhoid fever, a subject which was to become his life's work. In 1842 Budd emigrated to Bristol where he served as a physician at St. Peter's Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

In 1847 Budd visited a patient suffering a fever in the Bristol suburb of Richmond Terrace. Budd diagnosed typhoid fever and his investigation revealed that of the 34 households of Richmond Terrace 13 had experienced cases of typhoid fever. Subsequent investigation revealed that those 13 households all shared the same well as a water supply and the rest of Richmond Terrace used different water sources. With this information Budd hypothesized that the well was the source of the infection. In 1849 when Budd took charge of the water supply for Bristol he concluded that it was responsible for the spread of cholera. Before Budd took control of the water supply a cholera epidemic had killed 2000 in Bristol. In 1866 an outbreak killed only 29. Budd was slow to publish his findings regarding the transmission of cholera waiting for microscopical results which eventually proved inconclusive, but before he published John Snow, a London physician, published his findings concerning the source of cholera spread. Budd honestly gave Snow credit for priority for the discovery that cholera was spread through contaminated water supplies.

In the days before the discovery of the organisms responsible for typhoid fever and cholera Budd's conclusions were greeted with skepticism. Today we know that typhoid fever is caused by the organism Salmonella typhi and cholera is caused by Vibrio cholerae. Both organisms are spread by fecal contamination of water supplies in conditions of poor sanitation. Vibrio cholerae was disovered by Italian microbiologist Filippo Pacini who published in 1854, but it was not until after Budd's death that the causative organism for typhoid fever was discovered.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Stanislao Cannizzaro was born on July 13, 1826 in Palermo, Sicily, the fourth and youngest son of Mariano Cannizzaro and his wife Anna. Mariano was a magistrate in Palermo and the Director-General of the Sicilian Police. Cannizzaro was educated at home and in church schools and went to the University of Palermo to study medicine in 1841. Cannizzaro found the study of medicine to be tedious as he was more interested in chemistry. Unfortunately the university did not have facilities to study chemistry so Cannizzaro went to Naples where he met the physicist Macedonio Melloni, with whom he became friends and upon Melloni's recommendation he got a job working in the chemical laboratories of the University of Pisa working for Raffeal Piria.

Cannizzaro returned to Palermo in 1847 and served as an artillery officer in the 1848 rebellion. Also in 1848 he was elected to the Sicilian Parliament and served as its youngest member. After the fall of Messina on September 7, 1848 Cannizzaro was sent to Taorminna to organize resistance. When the rebellion collapsed Cannizzaro lived a life on the run eventually escaping to Marseilles, France in 1849. Cannizzaro toured France getting access to laboratories where he could and eventually he settled in Alessandria, Italy where he got a position as a professor of physical chemistry and mechanics at the National University in Alessandria. In 1855 Cannizzaro was called to the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Genoa. In 1861 he took a professorship at the University of Palermo where he remained for ten years. In 1871 Cannizaro was called to the professorship at the University of Rome.

Cannizzaro is most remembered for his work popularizing the ideas of another Italian chemist Amedeo Avagadro. Avagadro had proposed that equal volumes of two gasses at the same temperature and pressure would contain the same number of molecules and that the molecular mass of the molecules would be the sum of the atomic masses of the atoms of which the gasses are composed. Using this principal Cannizzaro developed a method for determining the molecular masses of gasses. At the time chemists were still trying to work out the uses of the words atomic and molecular. Cannizzaro's outline, prepared for his students at the University of Genoa, helped chemists understand that gasses are molecules composed of multiple atoms and have the molecular mass of the sum of the atomic masses of the atoms of which they are composed. For example, oxygen gas, composed of two oxygen atoms each having the atomic mass of 16, has the molecular mass of 32. For his work contributing to the understanding of the concepts of atom and molecule Cannizzaro was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1891,

Cannizzaro is also remembered for his work in organic chemistry, where he studied amines and aromatic compounds. Aromatic compounds are compounds that contain a benzene ring. The Cannizzaro reaction is the reaction where an aldehyde is reacted with a base and the reaction produces the alcohol and carboxylic acid that correspond to the aldehyde.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Peter Waage was born on June 29, 1832 on the island Hidra, near Flekkefjord in Norway. His father, also named Peter, was a ship-master and owner so he was often away from home and Waage was raised and taught by his mother, Regine. Waage learned to read by age four and spent his youth collecting minerals, plants, and insects. He graduated high school in Christiana and began studying medicine at the university. After his first division he switched to chemistry. in 1858 Waage won the Crown Prince's Gold Medal for a paper he wrote about oxygen containing organic acids and he earned his doctorate in 1859. After graduating Waage won a scholarship to study in France and Germany, Waage as appointed as a lecturer in 1861 and professor of chemistry in 1866 at the University of Kristiana.

Waage is most remembered for his discovery, with his brother-in-law Otto Guldberg, of the law of mass action. The law of mass action says that the rate of a chemical reaction is proportional to the concentration of the chemical reacting. For the chemical reaction A + B --> AB the rate of the reaction is =k[A][B], where [A] and [B] are the concentrations of the reactants A and B and k is the the rate constant. The rate constant, k, varies depending on what the reaction is. Waage and Guldberg also studied the effects of temperature on chemical reactions. Because their paper was published in Norwegian it was largely unnoticed. The paper was later published in French and German and gained wide acceptance when the results were repeated by William Esson and Vernon Harcourt of Oxford University.

Waage and Guldberg were brother-in-laws twice over. Waage and Guldberg married sisters and after Waage's first wife died he married Guldberg's sister. Waage also discovered ways of preparing unsweetened condensed milk and sterile canned milk. Waage developed a condensed fish meal used as rations by the Norwegian Navy.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Hermann Minkowski was born on June 22, 1864 in Aleksotas, Lithuania, then part of Poland and the Russian Empire. He was the third son of Lewin Minkowski, a Jewish merchant and his German wife Rachel. When Minkowski was 8 the family moved to Konigsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia) to escape persecution and where he attended gymnasium school and showed an ability for mathematics. Minkowski attended the University of Kongisberg starting in 1880. He went to the University of Berlin for a three terms and shared a the Grand Prix des Sciences Mathematiques from the Paris Academy of Sciences with English mathematician Henry J.S. Smith in 1881, when he was 18. Minkowski earned his doctorate in 1885.

After two years of obligatory military service in 1887 Minkowski was appointed privatdozent at the University of Bonn. In 1892 Minkowski became an asOsociate professor at Bonn. In 1894 Minkowski joined the faculty of Zurich Polytechnic, where one of his students was Albert Einstein. In 1902 Minkowski took a chair in mathematics which had been created especially for him at Gottingen University. Minkowski remained in Gottingen util his death.

Minkowski is most remembered for his work on geometry and space-time. In Euclidean geometry there are three dimensions, representing the three dimensions of space. Minkowski incorporated a fourth dimension representing time to the Euclidean system where time and space are interlinked together forming a whole four dimensional system. This four dimensional space is called Minkowski space-time and arises naturally when consequences of relativity are considered.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Thomas Huckle Weller was born on June 15th 1915 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Born into a family of physicians, his father served as chair of pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School.Weller attended the University of Michigan where he studied biology earning his BA in 1936. He completed his masters a year later and then went to Harvard Medical School where he studied tropical medicine, graduating in 1940. Weller began his residency at Children's Hospital in Boston in 1941, but his training was interrupted by World War II and three years of service in the United States Army where he earned the rank of major and he headed the departments of bacteriology, virology and parisitology at the Army research station in Puerto Rico. After the war Weller returned to Harvard and the Department of Comparative Pathology and Tropical Medicine where he worked under John Franklin Enders.

Enders was working on growing viruses in culture. Viruses, unlike bacteria, are unable to reproduce on their own, so strictly speaking they are not living organisms. Viruses require a host cell in order to reproduce. Each cell has a mechanism by which it reproduces itself. Viruses take over this mechanism and use it to produce more viruses. Viruses grown in the laboratory must be grown in a cell culture. Different viruses infect and use different types of cells to reproduce. Enders and Weller were studying which types of cultured cells could be used to grow different types of viruses. Working with Enders, Weller was the first to be able to grow poliovirus in culture. Poliovirus enters humans via the the cells of the alimentary canal and migrates to other cells. It can infect motor neuron cells causing paralysis. For their development of the ability to cultivate the poliovirus Weller, Enders, and Frederick C. Robbins were awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. With the ability to grow poliovirus in culture Jonas Salk was able to create a vaccine for polio and the disease has virtually been eliminated.

In 1954 Weller was appointed the Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Tropical Public Health, which he remained until 1983. In addition to his work growing polio virus, Weller also isolated and grew varicella virus (the virus that causes chicken pox and shingles). He was also able to grow rubella and cytomeglovirus. Weller was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1964. Weller was made professor emeritus in 1984.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Bruno Benedetto Rossi was born on April 13, 1905 in Venice, Italy. His father, Rino, was an electrical engineer and had taken part in the electrification of Venice. Rossi was educated at home until he was 14, after which he attended ginasio (gymnasium) and liceo (high school) in Venice. He began his university studies at the University of Padua and finished his laurea (doctorate) at the University of Bologna in 1927. In 1928 Rossi took a job as an assistant at the Physics Institute of the University of Florence. Initially Rossi was at a loss to find a project to work on with the limited resources of the institute, but after reading a paper on cosmic rays, Rossi began studying them and developed an improved instrument, called a coincidence circuit, allowing him to study them. The instrument consisted of two Geiger counters, one mounted above the other, where metal plates could be inserted in between. By varying the type and thickness of the metal plates Bruno could determine the penetrating power of the cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays are charged atomic particles that bombard the Earth originating from the supernovas of large stars and in smaller amounts from active galactic centers. The surface of the Earth is protected from these charged particles by the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, although some reach the Earth's surface. Life on Earth would not survive were it not for this protection. Initially these particles were believed to be a form of electromagnetic radiation, but in 1927 Jacob Clay measured the amount of rays detected as he voyaged from Netherlands to Java and reported that the amount of rays hitting the Earth's surface changed with latitude with a minimum at the equator. This demonstrated that the "rays" were not photons and must be charged particles that were deflected by the Earth's magnetic field.

In 1932 Rossi became a professor of experimental physics at the University of Padua. In 1938 he was dismissed from his professorship because he was Jewish. After a brief stays at the Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and University of Manchester, Rossi emigrated to the United States where he took a position at Cornell University in 1940. In 1943 Rossie joined the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico where he was co-chair, with Hans Straub, of the "detector group", which was responsible for designing detectors used by the scientists developing the atomic bomb.

In 1946 Rossi took a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the new Laboratory of Nuclear Science. At MIT Rossi focused on studying newly discovered subatomic particles. Rossi focused on developing detectors that could be launched into space to study cosmic rays that are not affected by the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. Rossi retired in 1970, but continued teaching. Awards won by Rossi include the Rumford Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976), the Elliot Cresson Medal from the Franklin Institute (1974) and the National Medal of Science (1985). Rossi was also awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Palermo, Durham, and Chicago.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen was born on April 6, 1911 in Munich, Germany. His father, Wilhelm Lynen, was a professor of mechanical engineering and his mother, Frieda, was the daughter of an industrialist. Lynen completed his primary and secondary education in Munich and attended Munich University studying chemistry. He completed his Ph.D. in 1937 with a dissertation identifying the toxic substance in amanita mushrooms. After graduation Lynen remained at Munich University becoming a chemistry lecturer in 1942, an assistant professor in 1947, and biochemistry professor in 1953. When World War II broke out Lynen was exempt because of injuries he sustained in a skiing accident. In 1956 he became director of the Max Plank institute for Cellular Chemistry.

Lynen's research dealt with determining the biochemical pathways by which cells produce fatty acids and sterols. Working with Konrad Bloch, he discovered the pathway by which cholesterol is synthesized. Later he determined the structure of acytel-coenzyme A. Acetyl-CoA is an important biochemical intermediate. It feeds two carbon acetic acid fragments from glycolysis (the initial steps by which cells break down glucose) into the citric acid cycle to generate cellular energy. It also is the basis of fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis using the two carbon acetate to build longer carbon chains to store energy or produce bigger carbon molecules. For their work Lynen and Bloch were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1964.

Other awards won by Lynen include the Grand Cross of Merit with Star and Sash of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1965, Norman Medal of the German Society for Fat Research in 1967, the Pour le mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste in 1971, and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 1972.

Why "Dead Scientist of the Week"?

When I was taking freshman chemistry lab my instructor included a lesson in science history in his weekly lectures on our experiments. I found this method of teaching, including a history lesson with the scientific material fascinating and helpful making the material more accessible. It is my hope that these scientific biographies will make the dry memorization of science more interesting and make the material more accessible.